Boulevard

The history of Chicago can be told through its neighborhoods, and perhaps none is more telling than Douglas/Grand Boulevard on the city's south side. The future site of the neighborhood remained a sparsely settled prairie until the early 1850s, when Stephen A. Douglas purchased a large tract of land and began developing a residential subdivision for the wealthy. Douglas/Grand Boulevard: A Chicago Neighborhood explores the development of this distinctive community and the many obstacles its residents encountered. Originally a predominately white neighborhood, Douglas/Grand Boulevard became an African-American community during the Great Migration when thousands of Southern blacks moved north seeking greater opportunities. After the 1919 Race Riot, an increasing number of white residents moved away from the neighborhood, and the community became a national model of black achievement.

Presents a history of the thoroughfare designed by Louis Aloys Risse that spans over four miles through the center of the West Bronx, the Grand Boulevard, and Concourse and explores the various aspects of Jewish communal life near the boulevard.

With a deceptively simple style, this novel takes a compassionate look at complicated character, Ardennes Thrush, an award-winning movie star who suddenly and mysteriously quits acting.

On Sunset Boulevard, originally published in 1998, describes the life of acclaimed filmmaker Billy Wilder (1906-2002), director of such classics as Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, The Seven Year Itch, and Sabrina. This definitive biography takes the reader on a fast-paced journey from Billy Wilder's birth outside of Krakow in 1906 to Vienna, where he grew up, to Berlin, where he moved as a young man while establishing himself as a journalist and screenwriter, and triumphantly to Hollywood, where he became as successful a director as there ever was. Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment"Wilder's cinematic legacy is unparalleled. Not only did he direct these classics and twenty-one other films, he co-wrote all of his own screenplays. Volatile, cynical, hilarious, and driven, Wilder arrived in Hollywood an all-but-penniless refugee who spoke no English. Ten years later he was calling his own shots, and he stayed on top of the game for the next three decades. Wilder battled with Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, and Peter Sellers; kept close friendships with William Holden, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau; amassed a personal fortune by way of blockbuster films and shrewd investments in art (including Picassos, Klees, and Mir's); and won Oscars--yet Wilder, ever conscious of his thick accent, always felt the sting of being an outsider. On Sunset Boulevard traces the course of a turbulent but fabulous life, both behind the scenes and on the scene, from Viennese cafes and Berlin dance halls in the twenties to the Hollywood soundstages of the forties and the on-location shoots of the fifties and sixties. Crammed with Wilder's own caustic wit, On Sunset Boulevard reels out the story of one of cinema's most brilliant and prolific talents.

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, a classic film noir and also a damning dissection of the Hollywood dream factory, evokes the glamour and ruin of the stars who subsist on that dream. It's also one long in-joke about the movie industry and those who made it great-and who were, in turn, destroyed by it. One of the most critically admired films of the twentieth century, Sunset Boulevard is also famous as silent star Gloria Swanson's comeback picture. Sam Staggs's Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard tells the story of this extravagant work, from the writing, casting and filming to the disastrous previews that made Paramount consider shelving it. It's about the writing team of Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett-sardonically called "the happiest couple in Hollywood"-and their raucous professional relationship. It's about the art direction and the sets, the costumes, the props, the lights and the cameras, and the personalities who used those tools to create a cinematic work of art. Staggs goes behind the scenes to reveal: William Holden, endlessly attacked by his bitter wife and already drinking too much; Nancy Olson, the cheerful ingenue who had never heard of the great Gloria Swanson; the dark genius Erich von Stroheim; the once famous but long-forgotten "Waxworks"; and of course Swanson herself, who-just like Norma Desmond-had once been "the greatest star of them all." But the story of Sunset Boulevard doesn't end with the movie's success and acclaim at its release in 1950. There's much more, and Staggs layers this stylish book with fascinating detail, following the actors and Wilder into their post-Sunset careers and revealing Gloria Swanson's never-ending struggle to free herself from the clutches of Norma Desmond. Close-Up On Sunset Boulevard also chronicles the making of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical production of Sunset Boulevard and the explosive diva controversies that dogged it. The book ends with a shocking example of Hollywood life imitating Hollywood art. By the last page of this rich narrative, readers will conclude: We are those "wonderful people out there in the dark."

Dive into the World of Leonard Merrick's A Chair on the Boulevard 📚🪑 Hey Bookworms, Looking for your next literary escape? Step right into the captivating world of Leonard Merrick's A Chair on the Boulevard. 🌟 Why You'll Love It 📖 🪑 Intriguing Plot: Follow the journey of a mysterious chair and the lives it touches on the bustling boulevard. 🪑 🧐 Rich Characters: Merrick's characters are as complex as they come, each with their own secrets and desires. 📚 Timeless Themes: Love, loss, and the pursuit of happiness - we guarantee you'll be hooked from the first page. Why Leonard Merrick? 🧐 🪑 Underappreciated Gem: Merrick's work is a hidden treasure of English literature that deserves more recognition. 📚 Masterful Storytelling: His knack for weaving intricate plots and deep emotions will leave you spellbound. Ready to lose yourself in a tale that lingers long after you've turned the final page? 📚 Get Your Copy of A Chair on the Boulevard Now! Happy Reading, Your Literary Companion

A fast-growing frontier community transformed itself into a beautiful urban model of parks and boulevards. In 1893, East Coast newspapers were calling Kansas City the filthiest in the United States. The drainage of many houses emptied into gullies and cesspools. There was no garbage collection service, and herding livestock through the city was only recently prohibited. Through the diligent efforts of a handful of recently arrived citizens, political, financial, and botanical skills were successfully applied to a nascent parks system. Squirrel pastures, cliffs and bluffs, ugly ravines, and shanties and slums were turned into a gridiron of green, with chains of parks and boulevards extending in all directions. Wherever the system penetrated well-settled localities, the policy was to provide playgrounds, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, pools, and field houses. By the time the city fathers were finished, Kansas City could boast of 90 miles of boulevards and 2,500 acres of urban parks.